An interesting story attaches to the Jocko River and Reservation.  It is stated that an Irishman named Jacob Finley established a ranch on the river early in the present century.  The French Canadians who settled in the neighborhood and intermarried with the Indians, called Finley by his Christian name with a peculiar French pronunciation, which made it sound very like much Jaco or Jocko—­the latter name gradually becoming generally adopted.  It was quite natural to call the river and the valley after the ranch owner, and the name finally became generally accepted as correct.  This man Finley left behind him a family of seventeen, and before he had been dead many years his direct descendants numbered within three or four of an even century.

The Indians called the stream the Nlka, an unpronounceable combination of letters, resulting from a most interesting though variously described event.

Mrs. Ronan, the well-known writer, tells an interesting story of how names are given by Indians.  Thus, her own daughter’s name was Isabel, but the Indians called her “Sunshine.”  In February, 1887, the little girl was born.  For some days prior to her birth the weather had been gloomy in the extreme.  Almost simultaneously with the child’s birth the sun, so long hidden under the clouds, burst forth to gladden the heart of man.  With one accord, the Indians declared that the little one had brought sunshine with her, and hence the name, which, as subsequent events have proved, was exceptionally appropriate.

Accompanying this chapter is an illustration of Mount Tacoma.  This mountain is one of the most attractive, as well as lofty, in the Northwest.  As can easily be supposed, traditions without number are connected with it.  No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that the Indians who are found in this region are naturally atheistic, as well as ignorant.  To the student of religion there is rather an inherent belief in the Supreme Being among these people, with very strong proofs of the truth of the divine revelation.  One of the traditions, told with much fervor and earnestness about Tacoma, involves in it a Savior of mankind.  With great reverence and awe the good listener among the band of tourists is told that at one period—­legends are seldom very specific in the matter of time or space—­a Savior arrived in a copper canoe, his mission being to save the Siwash Indians, who were spoken of as the chosen people of the Great Unseen.  That some prophet or missionary certainly came to this region and preached appears to be evident from the very definite survival of the doctrines taught by him.  His creed seems to have been a very apt blending of all that is best in the teachings of Buddha, with many of the precepts of the “Sermon on the Mount” added.